BIO 12 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor, Autonomic Nervous System, Sympathetic Nervous System
14 Sep 2020
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Neural synapses signal transmission (pages 253 254, 257-259) There are two types of synapses: chemical and electrical: electrical synapses: these pass an electrical signal directly from the cytoplasm of one cell to another through the pores of gap junction proteins (connexions). These types of synapses are mainly found in the cns and are good at rapid communication. These types of synapses are also always excitatory (depolarizing): chemical synapse: these are the vast majority of synapse found in the ns. These use neurocrine molecules to carry information from one cell to the next. At chemical synapses the electrical signal of the presynaptic cell is converted into a neurocrine signal that crosses the synaptic cleft and binds to the receptor on the post-synaptic cell. These can be either excitatory (depolarizing) or inhibitory (hyperpolarizing). There is a synaptic delay however that makes them slower and there is only one way of communication.
